Mom Who Hurt Infant Son Gets 15 Years In Prison

VERNON — A 25-year-old Vernon mother of three pleaded guilty Friday to assaulting her infant son and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Amanda Lynn McGuire will be on special parole for five years when she is released from prison.

A year ago, McGuire's assault left her son with serious head injuries, including bleeding on his brain and retinal hemorrhages. He was treated in the intensive care unit at Connecticut Children's Medical Center.

The boy, who is blind and must be fed with a feeding tube, is now in foster care with a family that is capable of caring for him in his medically fragile state, prosecutor Elizabeth Leaming said Friday in Superior Court in Rockville. His development was halted when he was injured, at age 3 months, she said.

McGuire pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and risk of injury to a minor. McGuire's two other children live with her husband.

The police investigation into the child's injuries began Dec. 12, 2013, when Vernon police received notification from the state Department of Children and Families that a child had been seriously injured. The child had been taken to CCMC in Hartford the day before by ambulance.

According to the warrant for McGuire's arrest, the boy's father, Michael McGuire, had arrived home from work on Dec. 11, 2013, and was told by his wife's grandfather, who had been caring for the boy, that the child was making an unusual high-pitched scream. Michael McGuire also noticed that the boy felt cold, looked pale and had blue lips. He took the boy to his pediatrician in Vernon, where the staff told him to take the boy to the hospital.

Michael McGuire took the boy to Manchester Memorial Hospital, where he was met by his wife. A doctor never saw the boy, however, because the wait was too long and the parents returned to their Vernon home. A short time later, they called the ambulance, which took the baby to CCMC.

The staff at CCMC immediately evaluated the baby, determined that he had suffered a serious head injury and began treating him. The staff also sought information from the parents about how the baby had been injured.

Vernon detectives figured that out, according to the warrant for Amanda McGuire's arrest. After a series of interviews with detectives, Amanda McGuire gradually acknowledged that she had hurt her son, according to the warrant.

She said she got frustrated caring for the baby at night, according to the warrant. Her recently deceased grandmother had helped her care for the children, but without her "she felt overwhelmed," she told detectives. She described non-specific incidents where she would "snatch" the baby out of his bassinet without supporting his head, putting the baby down hard grabbing the infant's legs and then dropping the child on a hardwood floor, the warrant says.

On one occasion, when the child was being fussy and would not sleep, she told detectives, she recalled placing her hands on the baby's shoulders, shaking him and saying, "Why won't you go to sleep?"

Then, in the presence of Vernon Det. Jim Grady and Det. Lt. Bill Meier, she told her husband "something happened to the infant and I was the cause," the warrant says. She then said she suffered from depression and stress from all she was going through, but that it was no excuse for what she did, according to the warrant.